Grace and Law

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

It's been a while since I've posted a blog, but this has been reeling in my mind for the past four days, and I finally had time to put it down on paper. I recently went and caught the new World War Z movie starring Brad Pitt. It's funny how we can walk into the movie theater and simply plan on being amused (a- meaning opposite; muse-meaning to think; amuse-not to think) for a few hours by awesome action sequences, great jokes, or the always awesome little yellow guys that I love to call minions, that everyone now wants as a "pet." It's also funny how that never happens to me. If you know me I absolutely love movies. I'll quote them all day long, and I know quite a few references to a vast amount of movies of all genres. Even though the whole idea of a movie is to entertain an audience from an hour and a half to upwards of 3+ hours, I still find myself to be a thinker. No not a thinker that's trying to figure out who the real bad guy is, or how the hero's going to stop the villain. A thinker in the spiritual realm.

Let's start with a basic movie; Tangled. Remember the scene with all the lamps that were released for the lost princess? Ya? Well, I cried. Yes, I'm a man who cried at a movie marketed to little girls. Why? Because when you listen to, "I See the Light," you can parallel it with our relationship with God. She talks about seeing the light, the sky becomes blue, there's hope, and that the whole world is different when she's with this guy. Likewise, Rider sings about trying to find fulfillment, and that he couldn't until he met her. When you parallel those words to our relationship to God, and that Christ is the light, and now that we see Christ, we see the world differently, and that the fog is lifted, and there's hope, there's lasting fulfillment rather than temporal fulfillment, you can't help but to let out a few waterfalls.

Now back to World War Z! The man version of Tangled is essentially what it is. I'm not going to review the whole movie, but just take a few points that I found extremely interesting. If you haven't seen the movie and really want to, don't read any farther because I will ruin it for you. At least I'm nice enough to admit it, right? Ok, so to start there's this infection of people that are called Zombies. They're strong, vicious, wild, and multiplying. They end up literally everywhere in the world, and not one city is immune from the attack. It's Brad Pitt's job to find both the source of the infection, and any possible cure for it. In the beginning you're introduced to a doctor who on the plane to Korea says this about how to find a weakness in the virus to find a cure. "Mother nature loves to disguise her biggest weakness as her biggest strength." So after the doctor makes a fatal error and kills himself, Brad is left alone to figure it out. The whole movie you see people getting destroyed but some continue being passed over. The elderly, crippled, malnourished, and even a man with a small limp but enough to notice. Brad finally realized that the zombies won't attack a sick person, so he ends up injecting himself with a deadly disease that has a known cure, and confirms his prediction by walking through a zombie infested hallway unscathed.

So here's the parallel, you ready? The zombies are demons, and the infection is sin. Sin has infected the whole world. Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through oneman sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." Now demons love to feed on a healthy host. Why? Jesus says, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." When we hold ourselves to be healthy, there's nothing a doctor can do for us. It's not until we admit that we're sick that the doctor can go about his procedures into providing us a way to get better. Likewise, with God, if we act and believe as if we can do everything on our own, God is going to let us have at it. Jesus says, "It's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to get into heaven." Why? Because rich men don't need anything. They don't need to be provided with a doctor that will tell them the real issue, they can buy one that will tell them everything that they want to hear. It's not until they are poor that they realize just how wrong they were. So the world finally admits there's a problem and now the doctor can go to work. In this movie Brad Pitt's character is a type of Christ. He injects himself with a deadly disease in order to show the world the way to get to safety. The Bible says that, Christ became a curse for us, meaning he took on our iniquity and infirmity, and gave us a way out by showing us how we should live, and then taking on the penalty for our sins. This was the cure for our sin, or the spiritual version of the "zombie invasion."

Movies are plastered with spiritual truths that the world has mistaken for simply entertainment. Did you know, that Paranormal Activity admits that there are no ghosts, but in fact demons? Yes, in the movie the home owners call on a medium, who, upon entering the house says, "I can't be here. This isn't a ghost, it's a demon, you need to call a priest." Don't believe me? Look it up for yourself. Hollywood's not trying to be sly anymore, but showing us right to our faces what's going on and the world still claims, GHOSTS! I encourage you to look for the spiritual things in everything that you watch, listen to, or do. It will give you a great understanding of Romans 1 where Paul writes that God has made Himself known in the plainness of the world we live in so that men are without excuse. From something as simple as an egg to the ingenuity and complexity of the design of the universe, God's invisible qualities are clear to all people. Be encouraged to have fun at the movies, and to find God in all that you do.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

"Tolerance"- This nine letter word has gained a lot of momentum through the years. Maybe "intolerance" is even more common. You know, the idea that all us Christians are just "intolerant." It's amazing to me the fact that simply saying that something someone is doing is wrong is considered "intolerant," but the fact that you are telling me I'm "intolerant" is, in fact, you "tolerating" my "intolerance." Even though me telling you that you were wrong was "intolerant," you telling me that I'm wrong is just fine. Confused yet? I know I am.

I was watching Conan last night and Jesse Tyler Ferguson was one of the guests. Jesse is an actor from the comedy series "Modern Family" that is on ABC. They went through a really nice and interesting interview that was fun and comedic, and then Conan said, "I have to plug this in here. You recently started a foundation? What's that about?" Jesse then began to talk about "tie the knot." Tie the knot is a foundation that sells bow ties to raise funds and awareness for "marriage equality" for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. So I went to tietheknot.org to check it out. On the website they are comparing this fight for "marriage equality" to the civil rights movement. Now, I'm familiar with the concept, and I'm sure all of you are as well, but I was shocked that a man who seems so educated could make a claim so outrageous. Well, that comparison led me to search reasons why the LGBT community would make such claims. They state that they are a small minority that is being "oppressed" by the majority, similar to blacks being oppressed by whites. Not exactly in the same ballpark, or even universe, is it? I also came across an article that attacked a Catholic bishop, or as they say bigot, who was simply stating why he believed homosexuality was wrong and even immoral. I also watched an interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews in which Chris and Congressman Barney Frank were having a blast attacking Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council about his statements against gay marriage in which the title of the video (Barney Frank 'wipes the floor' with bigot Tony Perkins in same-sex marriage debate), calls Mr. Perkins a bigot for simply not supporting gay marriage, and rather supporting Biblical standards and definitions.

The Bible is very clear on the issue of homosexuality. Paul writes in Romans that it's unnatural. Leviticus is very harsh calling it an abomination. So clearly, to a Christian, it is immoral. Why can we not say that? Why is it "intolerant" to say something is wrong, but "tolerant" to call me a bigot for expressing my opinion? Understand this, I don't hate homosexuals, and neither does God. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the WORLD" not, "God so loved everyone but homosexuals," but that doesn't mean we simply say nothing. The world today seems to think tolerance means love, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Tolerance is a passive word. It means to "allow the practice, or act of without prohibition." Tolerance actually is synonymous with "permitting." Would you permit your son to use drugs? Would you permit your daughter to having multiple sexual relationships with multiple men? NO! You would prohibit it! Why? Because you love them! Love is an action word, not a passive one! When you love someone, you show it by what you do. When they do something wrong you tell them because you love them. That's why Christians seem like bigots. We don't hate the LGBT community! We love them! We have our convictions that we are free to act on through the 1st Amendment, which also protects our freedom to tell you our convictions. It's in fact more intolerant to call me a bigot for expressing my beliefs, than for me to express a belief that you simply feel uncomfortable with or hostile to.

Listen Christians, this is not a license to walk out into the world and tell everyone they are a horrible person. None of us should do that! We need to look upon people with love. We need to care for and foster them. I am not trying to single out the gay community, simply open up eyes to see. Paul says in 1 Timothy, that Timothy needs to stay in Ephesus so that he can COMMAND the people to steer away from the false teachers and that his attitude in doing so should be one of love. It's not to establish dominance or fear, but to show the people of Ephesus that he loves them enough to tell them they are doing wrong. In 2 Timothy, Paul tells to "preach the Word." That is a command all of us need to take. Regardless of what people may say or think, we need to stick to the Word of God, and preach it with love and humility. Homosexuality is a sin. We all sin. None of us are better than anyone. We all at one time need to hear this message, and the homosexual community is in that same boat. Love them, care for them, and preach the Word!

To any LGBT who may read this, please don't think I'm targeting you specifically. I've written, and given countless messages, and had debates with Christians and non-Christians, Atheists and agnostics, about all kinds of topics and issues. I simply came across this subject, and was led to write about it. None of it was written with any intent to offend or demean, simply to reveal.

Monday, January 14, 2013

I woke up yesterday morning at 3:30am with a horrible headache. I was in a car accident when I was 18 months old, and I've lived with migraines ever since. Suffering a back injury in football and 1 diagnosed concussion, along with who knows how many undiagnosed, probably didn't do much to help my situation either. I'm used to headaches. I've lived with them all my life. In fact one time I had a headache so bad in 3rd grade that on the bus I actually threw up on a kid that was sitting next to me. I typically keep a bottle of ibuprofen or aspirin in my car and at work. If I travel any where you better believe there's medicine coming with me. Well, yesterday morning was another one of those days. It was so bad that I couldn't close my eyes to get relief, and I couldn't keep my eyes open because any kind of light was like a lazer that was trying to blind me, and on top of that I was feeling extremely nauseous and started thinking back to what happened in 3rd grade and how much I didn't want to go through that again. My typical ritual is to get up and take medicine and take a shower, so I did. While I was in the shower I remembered back to a passage of scripture that we had gone over in one of our men's Bible studies when David is speaking to God. 2 Samuel 7:25 "Now, therefore O LORD God, the word you have spoken concerning Your servant, and his house, confirm it forever and do as You have spoken..." David calls God out on His promise. David says, "God you have spoken this promise over me and my house, do as you have promised." This verse flooded my mind, and this idea flooded my mind as I then remembered Matthew 7:7 where it says, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." Those are "will" statements, which indicate a promise that God will do what He has said. I finally thought about how we have been given the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the work of God, to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, and to profess the Word of God with boldness. Well, you know what I did? I called God on His promise. I said, "God you said if I ask I will receive so I'm asking for an empowering of Your Spirit. You said, 'seek and you will find,' so I'm seeking your healing. You said, 'knock and the door will be opened,' well my knuckles are bleeding I'm knocking so hard at Your door."And just like God is, He was faithful to His promise. I immediately started to feel relief in my head. I could close my eyes again to get some rest. I had peace.

So many times we live in fear when it comes to walking out our faith. We are perfectly comfortable talking about an omnipotent God, but when it comes to having a situation to apply His omnipotence, we fail miserably. I can't tell you how many times I've been led to pray for a sick person to be healed and I wimp out and end up asking God to do this and that without any real belief behind it, without any authority in what I say. Then I read the account of Peter and John at the gate Beautiful in Acts 3 and I just drop my head in utter disappointment. Those guys knew the authority. They knew the power they had, and compared to them I'm a failure. They didn't ask God to do anything, because they knew He would do it. They walked up to the crippled beggar and said, "Get up and walk!" That's it! Nothing more, nothing less! And what happened? The man got up, and went jumping and praising God in the synagogue! How have we gotten so lost in what, "walking in the authority of God" really means? God promised us His power, and His power is infinite and incalculable! He promised us His authority, and His authority is greater than any president, king, or ruler this earth, or even the spiritual realm, has ever known! Why don't we walk in it? Why do we allow our circumstances, our western world view, to get in the way of the potential that God has for us? The next verse in 2 Samuel 7 says, "that Your name may be magnified forever, by saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel..." Think about this. If we are calling on God's promises for His glorification we cannot fail because God will not be mocked! He's all about His glory, His honor, His exaltation! I called on His promise not simply so I could be healed, but so that I could stand before our congregation that Sunday morning and say, "God is faithful to His promise! What He did for me, He can and will do for you!" It was to glorify His name, not simply for my satisfaction! If that is our attitude, there is no doubt in my mind that God will give us what we ask. It's why the man at the gate was healed. His healing brought glory to the name of God and an opportunity for the gospel to be preached in order that more men and women could be brought into the family of God! Take the step of faith! Believe in God as David did, as Peter did, as Paul and so many other great men and women did! Then watch God work in and through you! And ultimately give glory to the God of heaven and earth! The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God that is the one and only God! Amen!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Recently I went on a hospital visit to visit a man who had just had a heart-attack. First off, be praying for him as he's only 49 and shouldn't be having these kind of issues. No doubt that his decision to smoke since the age of 14 plays a major role in his condition; however he has made a resolution to quit smoking so be praying for a break of this addiction that plagues his life.

Anyway, while we were visiting, his mother had asked us to pray for his salvation. Of course we explained that that was a decision that he would have to make on his own, and that we were open to talk to him about that. He said he knew he had to repent and then went on his, what I like to call, "repentance speech." This is where someone will go off listing all of their sins because they somehow think that if they simply name off what they did that they will be cleansed and in right standing with God. Usually, it's not in a way that is submitting to Christ as Lord (1 Peter 3:15), but in a way to avoid hell. Unfortunately, this isn't unusual and got me thinking. Is this what we're teaching people? That heaven is about not going to hell? That repentance is more like Catholic confession? I sincerely hope not.

Repentance is not listing your sins, it's an active attitude of turning your back to your life of sin. It's saying, "I'm no longer going to follow that lifestyle!" "I'm no longer going to keep walking east, I'm going to start walking west." It's, "I'm no longer following the ways of this world, my ways, or the ways of the devil! I'm going to follow God and live for Him, not for myself!" Repentance in scripture is always an action of following God. Saul, stopped his life of persecuting Christians, became a follower of Christ, wrote a huge portion of the New Testament, was a huge influence in the ministry of many including Timothy and Titus, and became one of the most persecuted Christians ever to have lived. Simon-Peter, left his boat, his literal lifestyle, his job, what provided his food, his clothes, his house. He left all of it to follow Christ. Think about what he did there. He was making a huge statement. His job provided everything he needed. He was saying, "Jesus, I'm leaving this thing that gets me everything I need, because You are all I need." Now, before you put in your 2 week notice, understand I'm not calling you to quit your job. It's the attitude that I'm calling you to. The attitude of Jesus is all I need. Luke 14:26 says, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Obviously Jesus isn't telling us we should literally hate these people. What He's saying is that He needs to be the center of our life. Remember telling your wife she was your world? Or maybe your children? Jesus is saying, I need to be more of your world than them. He needs to be the sun. The thing your world revolves around. The thing that without it your world would be unable to sustain life. Look at every conversion story in scripture. It's men and women stopping one style of living to living a Christ-like style of living. A Christ-centered style of living. That's true repentance.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Joy. It's such a simple word, yet so hard to attain. Life is too hectic for us to truly experience joy right? We have ten thousand bills due at the end of the month, we have to plan to put our kids through high school let alone college and its outrageous cost. When do we ever have time for joy? What is joy anyway?

Most people tend to group joy with happiness. They believe that having joy simply means to be happy, but that isn't exactly true. Joy is not a feeling, just like love is not simply a feeling. Joy, like love, is a mindset that we must keep under control. When you're married, or simply in a relationship, temptation seems to fly at you more than when you were single and uncommitted. I hear so many young people say, "If only I was married, I wouldn't struggle with this sin or that sin," and all the married people laugh and say, "good luck." I talk to married men all the time about the best and worst parts of marriage, and almost all of them will say that temptation increased greatly when they got married. They must be committed to their spouses and must control the urge to walk into sin. The same goes for joy. Joy is not just a feeling. The same way you may wake up next to your spouse and think, "I just don't feel like loving you today" you will wake up and say, "I just don't feel joyous," but should that stop you from choosing to be joyous? Should a simple feeling, or lack there of, stop you from loving your spouse? Absolutely not! When you say your vows it's "for better or for worse!" It's a "no matter what happens, I will always choose to love you!" That's the attitude we need to take when it comes to joy, and when you really sit down and look at all that God has done for you, how can you have any other attitude but a joyous one?

I hate going to work, just like the majority of Americans, but I go because I have to in order to pay for things that I need and want. I walk in the doors a lot of times, especially through the holiday seasons, thinking, "this is going to be a bad day," but when those thoughts come to mind I find myself singing, which is an odd reaction for me. I sing worship songs, hymns, sometimes even a little Christian rap here and there, and I find myself completely restored. The day isn't as long, the job isn't as tough, and the people aren't as big of jerks as maybe I paint them before I changed my attitude. For me, joy comes through praising Him in song. For you it may come through writing, thinking, praying, playing an instrument, whatever. However you experience joy, you have to take control. You have to wake up in the morning saying, "today I choose to be joyous!" You have to walk into work saying, "today I choose to work joyfully as unto the Lord!" Where ever you go and whatever you do, you are the decision maker in whether or not you live joyfully! And note this, you have been given God's authority to speak to demons, to speak to sickness, to speak to any satanic thought and command it to leave! You are not weak! You are not incompetent as a follower, son/daughter, and heir of God! You are strong, mighty, and capable! In Acts 3, Peter and John did not pray and ask God to heal the man at the gate Beautiful! They spoke boldly and said simply, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. Stand up and walk!" Do you see a prayer of unbelief? Do you see them asking God to heal this man? No, they understand their authority, and they walk in it! You have that same authority! Use it! Speak to the demons of depression, anxiety, and stress and command them to leave in the name of Jesus! Speak to your finances, your struggles, your hurts, and your pains, and command victory over them in the name of Jesus! It's your decision whether or not you will live joyfully and with confidence and authority! Don't allow the enemy to steal your joy! When all else fails, look to the cross and remember all that Christ did for you! As the Psalmist writes, "weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5b). Choose to live victorious!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

One of the most known, yet least understood verses in the bible is John 3:16. You see it everywhere you go, from sports games to people preaching open air, almost everyone knows this verse, but what does it truly mean? In western society, giving is not something surprising. American culture expects giving, but that's not really the problem. The problem is that they expect to be given to. With an unfortunate growth in a welfare program that seems to have less and less restrictions, Americans expect to be given to.

I remember working at a local food bank, and one of the workers would actually force the men and women who come to get food to simply say "thank you." He looked back at me and began to explain that it's amazing how these people can come and get free food and yet be so ungrateful as if they deserve us doing everything for them. I was in absolute shock at this man's statement. It was so profound and so unfortunately true. Think about how many times you and I have gone to McDonald's or Burger King drive thru's and had to pull up to the line and wait, and how inconvenienced we felt because instead of 3 minutes it took them 5 minutes to get our food. We've complained to the people at the counter and managers over a couple of minutes because they are supposed to have things ready on our time. Just this morning McDonald's in Richmond, IN ran out of orange juice. I had the opportunity to get upset, and was probably justified since they essentially promised me orange juice by ringing it in. However, the manager came out, gave me a refund and offered me a free drink. Hey, looks like sometimes "inconvenience" can actually be a blessing. Unfortunately, that's not how the majority of American's think. We want it now, we expect giving, and if we don't get what we want now, we get unjustifiably upset about stupid things. That's not how the eastern culture sees things though.

The reason that this is such a misunderstood verse is because we look at it through a western lens. In the western world we see this giving as if God owes us, but the eastern culture would have been shocked and perplexed. Think about the Grecian and Roman cultures. How many gods did they have? Too many to count. Remember in Acts when Paul preaches in Athens in front of the statue of the unknown god? They had so many, they even had the time to have an unknown one! Similar to America's "tomb of the unknown soldier." With all of these gods, came an awful lot of giving. Not to the people, but to the gods. The gods of this culture, and many cultures around the world today still, were taking gods. They required all kinds of rituals, temples, and sacrifices that did nothing but cause grief for the people.
Another thing to look at is how Jews saw God. I don't feel that God is or ever was a God who simply required rituals, rules, and sacrifices. When we look into the men and women of the Old Testament, they were all very flawed people that God extended His grace to even though they didn't deserve it. Men like David the adulterous murderer who was anointed king over Israel despite his clear disobedience at times. So God wasn't some wrath-filled, vengeful, God as some people, even Christians, try to paint Him as. But that didn't stop some of the Jewish leaders from doing nothing but require the people to perform acts, rituals, or give their time and money to God and the church. Think about the shepherds that were told the news of Jesus' birth. They were social and religious outcasts because their job didn't allow them to attend some of the religious activities that Jews were required to attend.

Eastern culture would have been floored by a God who gave, not with a hidden agenda, but simply because He loves! When we look through the lens of the eastern world view, we see just how profound this verse is, and why it deserves to be so popular. The gift of salvation is free! It's given out of God's abundant love! A love that is not hidden behind an agenda or ulterior motive, but a love that is open to anyone who accepts it! This is what the message of Christmas is all about! This is what the message of the Gospel is all about! Let us share this joy with everyone we meet!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Grace and Law

In the Christian arena there are continual arguments being made about the ideas of "Grace vs. Law" as if your only option is to choose one or the other. Recently, I have been having more discussions about this, and it only seemed right for me to create a blog, and write about it so that other's can hear what I have to say, and add and formulate their own opinions based upon scriptural evidence.

If you were to ask me a year and a half ago which side I was on, I was a no-brainer grace kid. I loved the idea that there was nothing that I could do to ever earn my salvation. I loved the idea that no matter what I did, no matter how bad I got, that God looked upon me with grace, and that He would accept me no matter what. In the present if you were to ask me which side I was on, I would say both. Listen, Scripture clearly tells us that we are saved by grace. That's undoubtedly true, and if there are any "grace movement" people out there listening, I hope you understand that those who still fight for Law typically aren't against the idea that grace is what saves us. Ephesians 2:8 is pretty clear on the matter. However, just because grace is in play doesn't take Law out of the equation.

Here's an interesting perspective on the matter. Ask yourself, "who was the law given to?" Was it given to outsiders? Was it given to the Amalekites? How about the Jebusites? Was it given to the Philistines? No! It was given to the Israelites. Now ask this, "what was the relationship between God and the Israelites?" Think about all of the men in Scripture that God used to bring about the Law. Abraham, Moses, David, etc. All were worshippers of God. All were men who followed God, even to places that other men would've called them idiots to go. Why would Abram leave everything he knows for a voice in his head? Why would Moses go into Egypt to free people who didn't like him? Why would David, a teenager, think he could take on a giant? Because they knew God. And God gave men he KNEW, and clearly loved, His Law. When I look at that, and I hear people say that God gave us the Law simply so that we know what sin is and to show us we can't live up to the expectations He has for us, it ticks me off. Really, a perfect God gives a Law simply to say we can't live up to it? Simply to say, here's what sin is and you can't avoid it? I don't know about you, but I don't want to serve that God.

Good news though! That's not what it was! God gave these men the Law because He loved them. It was given to them because God considered them His children and loved them enough to set ground rules to protect them. Did it expose sin? Yes, but why? So that these men could see it and avoid it. It wasn't some sick joke to say, "You sinners!" Maybe you've seen the "Jesus Videos" put out by Vintage21 Church, and you see Jesus stand before the people and say, "look at all these sinners! Alright listen up, listen to me I'm Jesus, listen to what I have to say! I have done many wonderful things. I have healed many people O diseases. I have performed many miracles, so that I can tell you this. You are all evil, there is no hope. That's it. Thank you." That's the reputation God's Law has gotten, and it couldn't be farther from the truth. Before we go throwing the baby out with the bathwater, let's really look at why it was given.

If you're a parent, you know that you have to have ground rules set for your children. Why do you set them? To yell at your child for fun? To show them how worthless they are? No! You do it for protection. Now if you believe Genesis when it says we were made in God's image, you should understand that your desire to protect your children from harm through rules, only stems from the image of God inside of you. That was His desire. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:32. Paul says, "when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will NOT be condemned along with the world" (caps added). Or Hebrews 12:5-11. Or Revelation 3:19. All speak of God disciplining us, and all say that it is for our benefit and out of His love for us.

We as a Christian people have become spiritually too immature to see this. We look at God's Law as a burden, as we did our parents rules when we lived in their house. Remember calling your curfew "stupid?" Remember telling mom or dad how they "don't know what it's like to be me, and to have to deal with all these dumb rules that ruin all my fun?" Remember those days? When we call God's Law simply the guideline to sin, we are essentially saying the same thing. And when we take the word Law out of our vocabulary, we are doing the EXACT same thing. We are saying, "God, you don't know what's best for me. I don't need your Law." We need to mature. I LOVE God's Law, because now that I've grown out of being a teenager, I see it for what it really is, protection. Why should I not serve any other God's? Because no other God can give me what YHWH gives me! Why shouldn't I commit adultery or fornication? Because God made me to be with one woman for the rest of my life, and not only do I damage myself and risk things like anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide (teen boys who get involved in premarital sex are 8x more likely to commit suicide, while teen girls are 4x more likely), but I hurt other people, my wife, past lovers, children, even parents who have prayed and taught me to do otherwise. I mean if you went through every Law in scripture it's meant for protection of the people of God. Sometimes protection from others, sometimes protection from self, but always protection.

Grace is beautiful and it is what saves us. But once we are saved and become Children (John 1:12) we now are subject to the consequences of our Father in heaven. We are still subject to the Law, however we are not condemned by it. Will we suffer consequences for not following it? Yes. Why? In order that we can share in God's holiness (Hebrews 12). Let us not forsake either, but believe in both Grace and Law!